London Calling

Yes, this post ain't all that different from this one, and I still need to respond to the comments here, but as travel tends to flip me out, I'll re-mention that I'll be leaving my home country of Kenya on Friday to visit England for this conference.   I've never been to England and am a nervous traveler, so you can do the math: I'm not sure what to do for the five days I'll be there without a conference to hold my hand.  In other words, if you had four days in England to do whatever you wanted with, what would you do?  (If you've already weighed in, don't feel obliged to comment again because believe you me your suggestions have already been logged by this nervous-traveler prone-to-flipping-out.)

Comments

[Ahistoricality]

I just like to go walking in new places: pick a direction (from the hotel, or from a stop or two down the line on bus or subway) and go, then start to circle back after a while. Find someplace to eat that isn't in the guide book and get their specialty; visit shops and grocers that are for locals, not tourists. Especially since you'll be jet-lagged, you can do it at odd hours which means you won't have quite the crowds to contend with, and see some more interesting things, perhaps.

[Karl Steel]

Where will you be going other than Manchester? And, uh, that's not Mel Gibson Mel Gibson who's speaking at the conference, I presume. If it is, may I suggest a road trip? Just make sure you do the driving.

[Ben]

Take a day trip down to Oxford, it's beautiful.

Walking around the English countryside can also be a fun experience for Americans, it's like being in a huge island garden.

[Victorix]

Manchester is a good city all in it's own way, many museums and the art gallery has a large collection of pre-raphaelite paintings. Go look around the town hall - it's a beautiful building again with its share of artworks. The Lowry centre in Salford (next city over, all of a 15 minute journey!) has gallaries - much more modern art.

Further, you could visit Haworth (although I know the Brontes are not to everyone's taste).

[Kav]

From Manchester, grab the train to the Lake District. It's just over an hour away, pretty at this time of year (well at most times of year actually). Of course you are also very close to the Peak District which is also very much worth a look. Don't bother hoofing down to Oxford (Cambidge is prettier anyway) since its a 3 hour train ride. You can get to London in two.

You could also try an afternoon at Jodrell Bank: http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/visitorcentre/

[Martin Wisse]

Hop over to Amsterdam and pa-arty?